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Accident Reporting to OSHA & Injury Log Requirements, October 2014

OSHA INJURY LOG REQUIREMENTS

LOG 300, 300A & 301 REQUIRED FOR AUTO DEALERS

Background: Prior to January 1, 2002 Cal/OSHA required auto dealers and other employers to keep an injury log known as OSHA Log 200. Starting January 1, 2002, Fed-OSHA enacted Log 300, replacing the Log 200, but kept auto dealers exempt. Good news was that California joined the Feds on 1/1/2002 and kept auto dealers exempt from logging requirements, as stated here.

On January 1, 2015: Fed-OSHA requires auto dealers to keep a record of occupational injuries and illnesses using the forms as follows:

Log of Work-Related Injuries & Illnesses (OSHA Form 300)

Injury & Illness Incident Report (OSHA Form 301)

Summary of Work-Related Injuries & Illnesses (OSHA Form 300A)

The complete OSHA guide on completing the forms and the forms itself can be downloaded here.

Tutorial for Completing Forms: A tutorial is available to assist in completing the forms here.

Commentary: The forms are provided as a tool to the employer to document injuries, inform employees of accidents at the facility in previous years, and also, allow OSHA inspectors to obtain a quick summary of accidents at the workplace. Employers must use this log as a management tool to gauge the nature and frequency of injuries to determine corrective measures for accident elimination. Also, counsel employees who show up on the accident log on a repeated basis. Certain highlights of the forms are as follows:

Requires records to include any work-related injury or illness resulting in one of the following: death, days away from work, restricted work or transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first-aid, loss of consciousness, or diagnosis of a significant injury or illness by a physician or other licensed health care professional. First-aid is not recordable.

Requires a significant degree of aggravation before a preexisting injury or illness becomes recordable.

Requires employers to record cases when the injured or ill employees are restricted from their “normal duties,” which are defined as work activities employees regularly perform at least once per week.

You may stop counting days of restricted work activity or days away from work once the total of either or the combination of both reaches 180 days.

Focus on days away or days restricted or transferred. Rules rely on calendar days instead of workdays!

Requires employers to establish a procedure for employees to report injuries and illnesses and tell their employees how to report. Employers are prohibited from discriminating against employees who do report. Employee representatives will have access to those parts of the OSHA 301 form relevant to the employees they represent.

Protects employee privacy by (1) prohibiting employers from entering an individual’s name on Form 300 for certain types of injuries or illnesses (i.e. sexual assault, HIV infection, mental illness, etc.); (2) providing employers the right not to describe the nature of sensitive injuries where the employees’ identity would be known; (3) giving employee representatives access only to the portion of Form 301 which contains no personal identifiers; and (4) requiring employers to remove employees’ names before providing the data to persons not provided access rights under the rule.

Requires the annual summary to be posted from February 1 to April 30 in the following year. Requires certification of the summary by a company executive.

Changes the reporting of fatalities and catastrophes to exclude some motor carrier and motor vehicle accidents.

Cal/OSHA Recordkeeping Regulations: The recordkeeping regulations for Cal/OSHA and other state plans in effect in Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, etc. would be identical to Fed/OSHA. In California, the Occupation Health & Safety Standards Board must approve of the changes to the recordkeeping guidelines and that at times can take up to six months, essentially pushing the compliance date to January 1, 2016. We recommend that the dealers play conservative and start the log as of January 1, 2015. Changes from Board will be communicated to clients in a timely manner.

CHANGES TO FED-OSHA ACCIDENT REPORTING REGULATIONS

Background: Both Fed-OSHA and Cal/OSHA require that all serious injuries or fatalities to employees from accidents related to work be reported to the nearest OSHA office, even if the accident occurs on a weekend. Fed-OSHA requires reporting a fatality from a work-related incident or in-patient hospitalization of three or more employees as a result of work-related incident. The notification must be made to the nearest Fed-OSHA office by phone within 8 hours even if the injury or fatality occurs on a weekend. The Fed-OSHA number is 1-800-321-OSHA (1-800-321-6742). California regulations remain unchanged and were discussed in our May 2014 Newsletter.

On January 1, 2015: Fed-OSHA will change the reporting requirement to serious injury or illness as follows:

One or more employee hospitalization, other than observation, for more than 24 hours must be reported within 24 hours. Amputations and eye loss must be reported in this time frame. If the employee is admitted for observation and later undergoes treatment, the accident is reportable after 24 hours of the employer finding out that the employee has received treatment.

Fatality reporting within 8 hours remains the same as before. However, if the fatality happens after 30 days of the work-related incident, the 8 hour reporting rule does not apply.

Reporting: When reporting an accident to OSHA, the employer should provide the name of the employer, location of the accident, time of the accident, number of employees killed (if any), name of the employees, hospital where they were taken to, and name and contact of the reporting employee. Any statements made to OSHA may be used against you so it is best to keep the description of the accident brief.